[312] The Wheel of Causality (4)
Crouch listened with a serious expression.
"But you know, how to put it… yes—if you live forever, you eventually get to peek a little inside the box. From a human point of view, you begin to know who will be unlucky and who will be fortunate."
"I see."
Teraje had seen countless events from humanity's origin to the present.
Sensing that an excessive gift would appear even before spinning the roulette wasn't some supernatural power. It was an understanding of chaotic patterns earned from turning the gacha too many times.
"I was just thinking out loud."
Perhaps thinking it boastful, Uorin stuck out her tongue cutely and left it at that.
Crouch found her endearing. It was an absolute, reverent love offered to a being he could never dare approach.
"Her Majesty's foresight never ceases to amaze. So—what do you plan to do now?"
"Hmm. Even someone of Arius's caliber couldn't extract the Ataraxia. There must be something I don't know. I'll ask Gion. It's not that I don't have guesses."
"And what about Shirone?"
It was clear Uorin had taken in the new recruits, but she hadn't said what she intended for Shirone's future. If she'd accepted him for other reasons, Crouch would need to act.
"My feeling is Shirone's fate is like red and blue beads alternating. I still don't know. I want to watch a bit longer. Let him live his life. But block external interference—factions, organizations, institutions, nations, without exception."
"Understood."
Uorin issued orders fitting of the Triarchy.
Keeping Shirone's life as if today had never happened was possible because Teraje's world was vastly larger than Shirone's.
"And I will take the Teraje name. Tell the sisters in every country to have the line extinguished within two years."
"I will carry out your command."
There was no need to ask Kashan's ruler for permission. Uorin's decision was Teraje's decision.
In the early days of the line, disputes had arisen over succession. But over the long centuries, Teraje had evolved to a state in which it could accept death.
The sisters would accept it and, when the moment came, bring their lives to an end.
That end could have been Uorin herself. So why had she decided she would carry Teraje's name?
If she differed from her sisters in any single way, it was that she had met Shirone.
"Can Shirone… stop the Final War?"
Pleased by her subordinate's insight, Uorin looked out the window. Morning was approaching; bright sunlight drenched the world.
"Hoho—stop the Final War? I wouldn't take Teraje's name just for that."
"Then…?"
"Heaven is merely another territory to conquer. It doesn't have to be now. I am a being granted endless time. One day I will surpass heaven and conquer the edge of the universe."
Crouch gaped.
Conquer the universe. That meant dragging out Anke Ra—the incarnation of the Akashic Record—and making himself a god.
"Ataraxia would be a shortcut to bring that future closer. If Arius failed, it means no one can plunder it. But it would be different if it were me, wouldn't it?"
"Then…?"
"Yes."
Uorin turned to Crouch and placed both hands over her chest. The sunlight made her smile glitter like gold.
"I will become Shirone's daughter."
* * *
The next morning, the Kashan Empire's medical team transferred Shirone back to his lodgings.
They had taken every possible measure, but his consciousness had not returned. Even if he regained consciousness, they said the chance of full mental recovery was fifty–fifty.
At the suggestion that he might never be able to be a mage, Vincent burst into tears. Amy and Reina comforted Olina, who had collapsed and was sobbing.
"Don't worry. That's just the usual assessment. Shirone's willpower is different from others'. He'll surely recover completely and open his eyes."
Olina's voice was hoarse; she only nodded repeatedly.
Sensing it, Vincent wiped his face with his sleeve and tried to soothe his wife.
"Yes—let's wait. The medical team did say fifty–fifty. It's not desperate yet. All the more reason for us to be Shirone's strength."
Hearing that, Olina sprang up. She could not simply sit and weep as a mother.
She changed the cold compress on Shirone's fevered brow, clasped her hands, and prayed.
Amy, a mage, knew better than anyone how great the shock Shirone had suffered could be. She also knew such makeshift remedies wouldn't really help, but understanding a mother's heart, she kept silent.
Leaving Shirone in Olina's care, the three quietly left the room.
At least Shirone's life had been saved; now they had to think pragmatically. They wanted to pack and leave immediately, but Kazra's administrative authority had passed to Kashan.
Interfering in internal affairs would be a national humiliation. Nobles' backlash would be fierce, but since Teraje nominally remained Orkampf's wife, it was awkward to openly rebel. There was nothing to do but wait until the paternity test finished tomorrow.
A single night could feel perilous when spent in enemy territory.
Kashan's medics had hinted that Kazra's nobles would not act further, but it was little comfort. The biggest worry was whether Eliza would accept this quietly.
Olina had slapped the queen. A commoner striking royalty was a capital offense. Even if she would do the same again given the chance, getting away unscathed was another matter.
A longer-than-usual night passed, and morning dawned.
The attendants from House Ozent who had stayed up guarding Shirone looked exhausted, dark circles under every eye. Contrary to fears, nothing had happened. Kashan's medics had not spoken in vain.
On the day Shirone's paternity test would be revealed, the nobles of Kazra turned their attention to the tribunal.
The safe displayed in the inner castle garden had been recovered. They'd adopted a public surveillance system, and no one had accessed the safe during the display period.
The alchemists opened the neatly interlocked caspi. If anyone had planned to tamper with them, that would have been the only opportunity—but with Kashan in control, no one dared approach.
The alchemists confirmed the results, handed the test to Kashan's minister in charge, and drafted the report. Before the public announcement, they sent notice ahead to the king's apartments.
Eliza had been bedridden with a fever for two days.
Shirone's attempted murder had been a shock. The slap from Olina still stung. The previous night her temperature had reached forty degrees; she hadn't slept.
Orkampf, caring for his wife, was not in his right mind.
The sting of foreign interference gnawed at him, and Shirone—their only hope—was under Teraje's protection. Now all he could trust was the test result. If it confirmed Shirone was his child, he would regain some standing.
'I need Shirone. I need Shirone, I tell you.'
Just then the Minister of the Interior arrived with the approval documents from the Alchemy Department.
"Your Majesty, the results are in."
Eliza lunged ahead of Orkampf and snatched the papers. Her trembling hands betrayed her tension.
Seated on the bed, she opened the folder. There was a single official document stamped with the Alchemy Department's seal.
The paper in Eliza's hand trembled and made a soft rustle.
She read every word aloud without skipping a single character. When the result finally registered, thick tears streamed down her cheeks.
She hugged the document until it was crumpled and stared up at the ceiling.
"Ah—our son…"
* * *
Olina had stayed up through the night nursing Shirone. Her care seemed to have worked; the fever that had raged overnight had subsided somewhat by morning. Amy looked at Shirone with pity.
Kashan's medics said there was a high chance Shirone would awaken within twenty‑four hours. But if a day passed, they couldn't predict when consciousness might return.
It might take a day or two. In the worst case, he could remain in a vegetative state for more than a year.
'Well—he did cast an impossible spell.'
A Depth‑1 monster had clawed at Shirone's mind, torn it, and ripped pieces away.
It was like tearing a child's blanket and draping it over an adult's body. Even considering Shirone's rapid growth, reaching that level would normally require at least five more years of training.
One could not imagine the magnitude of the mental shock.
Would he recover?
If the mind's durability had lost the elasticity to rebound, he would be doomed to live as a wreck forever.
'Ha—what am I thinking? Shirone wouldn't… Shirone wouldn't do that.'
There was a knock. Reina opened the door and the queen's maid bowed her head.
Amy felt the inevitable had finally come.
"Her Majesty the Queen wishes to see Ms. Olina."
Olina nodded calmly.
After replacing the cold compress on Shirone's brow with a fresh one, she kissed her son's cheek and readied herself to go.
"Let's go. Show me the way."
Vincent followed with a worried face.
"Honey, come with me."
"No. The queen asked for me. Don't worry. I'll be back soon."
Olina had a reason to want a private meeting with Eliza.
If the crime of assaulting royalty was upheld, Olina would not be the only one punished. She needed to negotiate to protect her family.
The Grand Hall still bore the scars of the fierce struggle. Debris had been cleared, but collapsed floors were temporarily patched with boards and broken pillars lay neglected, seemingly beyond repair.
The king and queen's garments were more resplendent than ever. Olina felt the desperate attempt to hide the humiliation of having lost Kashan's rule.
Eliza, who had once looked down on Olina with disdain, was thrown into confusion when Olina did not avert her gaze.
When they first met, the woman had been too frightened to even look her in the eye. Now she glared like the queen of a nation. Because she was a mother? Possibly.
But it did not sit right.
'If the positions were reversed… could I have done what she did?'
It felt like something any mother could do, yet also paradoxically not something just anyone could do.
"I remember well what you did to me."
Olina let out a small snort.
Orkampf might have thought a speck of dust had irritated his nose, but Eliza, a woman, understood that snort perfectly.
Her eyes seemed to say: If I regret anything in my life, it's that I only slapped you once.
"Do you think I'm a pathetic mother?"
"I'm not one to judge others. I simply could not tolerate my child being harmed."
Olina bowed politely as she answered.
Orkampf could not sense the high‑tension exchange of nerves between the women, so he stayed silent.
Eliza recalled the scene when Shirone had gone berserk.
"Yes. It was frightening, that's true. But Shirone attacked me. If I had gone closer, I could have died. You act as if you did something greater than I did. If you had been in my situation, what would you have done?"
"I would have gone to Shirone anyway."
"Why? Because you're his mother?"
"Because my child had been stabbed."